Keir Starmer: ‘If you want change, you have to vote for it’
Keir Starmer: ‘If you want change, you have to vote for it’
The Labour leader on how he is determined to make a material difference to people’s lives if his party wins the general election
people did vote for it when they made you leader but then you abandoned literally all the pledges you ran on to get them to vote for you
Always good when left wing people repeat Tory talking points.
But of a change in message from "we don't need you lefties, fuck off and vote Green or whatever"
Labour's two biggest policy promises are the most ambitious green policies in this country's history, and the biggest expansion of workers' rights in half a century, so I don't see how the suggestion they're not interested in appealling to the left can be true.
Don't get me wrong I like those policies, and hope Labour win, but the messaging for the past few years has been very alienating to anyone on the left. When Labour frontbenchers are going out and calling Margaret Thatcher a "visionary leader", or Wes Streeting blaming "middle-class lefties" for opposing NHS privatisation then it makes you think "maybe they're not the party I was hoping they were". These aren't gaffes, they're part of a coordinated strategy to target more naturally right-wing voters. Because they don't think the left have anywhere to go (and they're right, but they might stay home).
When long time Tory donors like Lord Harris and John Cauldwell switch to Labour …. It’s not because things are going to change.
People always say this stuff. Then Labour win and we get things like the NHS or the minimum wage. Next election, they go right back to saying nothing will change. I'm much more interested by the people trying to get things done than the kneejerk cynicism that nothing will happen anyway.
gasp
So that's how it works! I'm relieved someone finally filled me in.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Starmer is sitting, shirt sleeves rolled up and steaming mug of black coffee in front of him, in a meeting room at the Royal Horticultural Halls in central London before a rally marking the final weekend of the campaign.
The polished wooden table is laden with plates of cakes and piles of teacups and saucers, which rattle slightly when he bangs his fist for emphasis.
While he blames the Tories and their years of chaos – over Partygate, Covid contracts, Liz Truss’s mini-budget – for the disillusionment so many people feel, he does acknowledge the Labour party failed to step up.
This would start with immediate “first steps”, in the first few weeks of power, followed later by transformational change on things like economic growth across the UK, radical reform of the NHS and the green transition.
Starmer, who has faced criticism from the left over his response to the Gaza conflict, dismissed reports that Labour would not recognise a Palestinian state before the end of the peace process as “without foundation”.
But at home, it remains far from clear how Labour would address deep-seated problems like homelessness, higher education funding, adult social care, local government finances and pensions.
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